Tucson teacher fired for not reporting he was charged with hitting, injuring student

A Cholla High teacher who has admitted publicly he used physical force to “discipline” a student at the school kept teaching there after he was charged with child abuse with criminal negligence causing physical injury and endangering the life/health of a minor in the on-campus incident.

Tucson Unified School District officials say the school reported to Tucson police that teacher Anthony Delgado was accused of striking the student, who is his son, on Jan. 13, at Cholla, 2001 W. Starr Pass Blvd. But district officials didn’t learn until Aug. 18 that Delgado had been charged on Feb. 1 in the case, according to documents the Arizona Daily Star obtained from TUSD.

District officials say they learned of the charges, which also included disorderly conduct-fighting, only when a Cholla assistant principal was subpoenaed to testify in Delgado’s court case. TUSD placed Delgado on administrative temporary assignment as of Sept. 8 and at some point suspended him.

On Tuesday night, the TUSD Governing Board voted unanimously to fire Delgado, a career and technical education teacher hired in 2021, for “unprofessional conduct” for failing to report the charges against him to his employers, which state law requires school district employees to do.

The teachers’ union president asked the board not to fire him, saying Delgado had claimed to have reported the child abuse charge to his superior — the district says he did not — within 24 hours as required by the law.

In speaking publicly to the board Tuesday night, Tucson Education Association President Jim Byrne never mentioned the nature of the violence allegations.

Asked why by the Star, Byrne responded Friday: “Of course, as a union, we don’t find it acceptable if any educator were to engage in a physical altercation with a student. That said, TEA, like any labor union, has a duty to fairly represent members to assure they receive fair due process according to state statutes and district policy. That Mr. Delgado received representation in those areas is customary for any union.”

Delgado told the Governing Board at Tuesday night’s public meeting that what happened Jan. 13 was a “disciplinary incident between my son and I.”

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He said he exercised “my God-given, irrefutable right to discipline my son with reasonable force in private, whether I am a teacher or his father.”

He said he was still teaching in the classroom as of the beginning of this school year, eight months after the incident.

“I went to trial for these charges and was found not guilty on all four counts of the law, glory to God and his son Jesus Christ for saving me,” Delgado told the board.

Delgado had a nonjury trial on Nov. 29 in Tucson City Court and was found not guilty of all charges.

In terms of his employment, the acquittal doesn’t matter under Arizona law, which states that a school district employee must report charges, other than traffic infractions, within 24 hours. If the employee doesn’t, according to the law, they must be “immediately dismissed from employment with the school district.”

The district’s statement of charges and notice of dismissal states that under A.R.S. 15-550 and TUSD’s board policy, Delgado’s failure to report the charges makes him “subject to mandatory dismissal and is entirely independent of the outcome of the underlying criminal charges.”